Eh, you'd be surprised at how many tankies are out there. People want to believe that good strong men can exist. Even lefties who ostensibly want to get rid of strong men rulers because we're supposed to understand that it is far too exploitable of a thing to allow to exist.
That's where tankies come from. They recognize power corrupts only so far as they can admit and no further, which makes them willfully ignorant fools. All of them who idolize any past or present authoritarian regime. Willfully ignorant fools or bloodthirsty revolutionaries that want change at any cost.
The result is all the same. The reasons are not. Most reasons boil down to that they think "strong men" should still be handed power and be allowed authoritative control. The problem is, everyone thinks a "good strong man" is a guy barreling forward with policies and actions that they like. It is inherently a flawed mindset for anyone remotely anarchist. Even "muh freedumb" people are deploying some semblance of understanding of this, they just err on the side of being selfish pricks.